Customer Reviews

Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 6)

5 star:		(148)
4 star:		(103)
3 star:		(89)
2 star:		(77)
1 star:		(63)

 

 

*No spoilers*

I started out reading Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series because I enjoy the Paranormal Romance genre. The love stories in the prequels to LEn are excellent (with the exception of Lover Unbound) IMHO. But it looks like this series has come to a fork in the road. Choosing the Urban Fantasy route verses the Paranormal Romance one. I don't mind the change in genre so much (as Ward is a captivating writer) but others might and may feel duped. So you've been warned.

I didn't particularly care for the romance in this book. A quick recap: Phury is the Primale. Essentially the Brother chosen to breed more Brothers. He is the sire of a 'harem' of forty Chosen females. Phury is supposed to mate with them and produce many children, the males of which will hopefully become the warriors (Brothers) who defend the vampire race from the evil lessers. Phury's first mate is Cormia. Their romance is tepid at best. I did not *see* them fall in love at all. More like I got the vibe that Cormia is merely a soothing and gentle influence on Phury's tumultuous life. She came across as a helpful friend rather than mate potential. Not the I-would-die-without-your-love feeling I got in the previous books. Since those books were so smack down emotional, I hoped this one would be too. I just didn't feel it.


But, BUT, and this is a big one. The rest of the book rocks! As I recall the lessers were sadly missing in LU. They are back in a BIG way here in LEn, specifically with the Omega making multiple appearances. John, Qhuinn and Blaylock also all have prominent roles in this book. Their stories make major advancements as well. With tons of surprises. And Rhevenge's and Xhex's characters are spot lighted too. There are also some very interesting twists (including new characters) to the series which leads me to believe that Ward is going in the Urban fantasy direction.

So although I think the romance is lack luster, the rest of the book is keeper material. I don't mind that LEn read more like three stories in one rather than a central romance with two subplots. Fans of Paranormal **Romance** will be VERY disappointed. But I still recommend reading LEn just for the advancement of other character's plots. Skip this one if your in it for the romance or wait to get the book at the library if your skeptical.

And for anyone new to the series? Don't start here! You'll miss out on a lot of the back story. These books are NOT meant to be read stand alone. Besides the previous books have some awesome romance.

I waited for this book, I rushed out and bought this book on the morning it was released. I sat down and read it straight through. By halfway through I was annoyed, frustrated, and confused. Way too much going on in this book for me to really care about all of it at once. Some of the subplots were too drawn out and seemed unnecessary.

The Brothers were a disapointment, where was the closeness, the comraderie, the "family"? John, Blay, and Qhuinn became the story. Interesting, but why make them the focus of the book? They seemed to be taking over. I felt that Wrath and the Brotherhood gave up, or stopped responding, all the way around. They looked kind of ineffectual at dealing with everything, including Phury. Honestly, by the end of the book, I didn't much care about any of them. I didn't feel anything for Cormia and Phury. Especially with the weak and unsatisfying resolution. The journey wasn't interesting and frankly didn't make sense. Too many detours.

When J.R Ward started this series I was completely caught up in the story and characters. I won't say I'm done with this series but I have lost interest in what happens to them. I probably will continue to read the books, eventually, when I find them at a used book store. I don't feel the need to run out and pay full price. I don't think I want to see this series go down in flames. It's too sad. Truly disappointing.

Before I found J.R Ward's BDB series I'd never read a paranormal romance. I read only historicals and thought that anything that was so weird as vampires and other baddies that go bump in the night were ridiculous until I read Wards work.

Now I'm a Vampire Junkie I can't get enough of them and the first four books of the BDB series will be on my to be read over and over and loved forever shelf..they are in my top 10 all time books and I've read enough books to fill a rather large book store. I am not easily pleased and Ward pleased me very well, gave me everything I wanted and all that I didn't know I wanted in the Brothers. With each book I fell madly in love with the characters, I couldn't decide who I loved most, they were all just so incredible! The leapt off the pages of the books, their world was so real, she brought them to life for me and I loved every word of every book...until V's book.

I felt very sad that V's story was not primarily about V as Wrath's, Rhage's and Z's and Butch's stories were about them. I felt cheated, not because as many others expressed, that V got stuck with a ghost but that he got stuck being a co star in the book that should have starred him. It was quite a let down. But, I didn't give up, I held out hope that she may have just had a problem writing him since he was so very complex. I thought that Phury was next and his would be better.

I am another who waited with breathless anticipation for this book. I adored Phury from day one. I was waiting for his book by the end of Dark Lover, truthfully, about 1 second after I read about him. I thought HE would be THE true romantic hero out of the series when I first read DL. I thought HE was going to be the special story that would be the climax of a truly incredible saga, the biggest and best love story of all. I mean, here he is, this sexy gorgeous creature who gives and gives until he can't give any more. He suffers in silence, his agony about his past kept to himself. He's always more worried about others than himself. And he had major angst build up...unrequited love from his own twins shellan, guilt for being the child that wasn't taken, guilt from not being able to save Z, pain from a childhood that was a nightmare, the shame of his dark side coming out and ofcourse the vigin aspect of it. I was just dying to have J.R. Ward tell me all about this man.

My first inkling that something wasn't going to be right about LE was the way that she let him lose his virginity, something that he held so sacred, he was waiting for his true love and then what...all of a sudden he's changed his mind and had this disgusting encounter in the toilets of a bar? YICK. It was gross and it was WAY out of character for him. I let that go though, hoping that things would eventually right themselves in his story.

It never happened, infact it went from bad to worse and than turned into a complete disaster. I don't know WHO that man she was writing about was but it certainly was NOT the person that she created. The Phury that I fell in love with would never have neglected a woman of worth for 5 months, leaving her to peas and toothpicks while he was smoking his red smoke and doing whatever it was he was doing. He would never have brutally taken her the first time, he would never have treated her the way that he did at all. And the way that red smoke suddenly went from being a mellow pot like kind of drug to something that sounded more like Crack or Meth or Heroin, well that was bizzare too. Everything about him was wrong...this whole wizard bit, why not make it more of a mental issue than a drug issue if he's hearing voices in his head and was a child of abuse, why not go that route instead of hooking him on a drug that we were told was not addictive at first. There was no resolution with Bella either. I was waiting for him to have that lightbulb moment when he realized that he never really loved Bella, I wanted him to explain this to Cormia, to allow her to feel secure in their love instead of wondering if he still wanted Bella. There were so many missed opportunities for major emotional moments, I can't list them all.


And if were going to get into characters who didn't act like themselves...NONE of the Brothers did in this book, what little part they had in the book that is. Why would Wrath cut loose one of only 6 members of the BDB? I mean, he let Z be in when he was abusing women and was a total monster..V and Butch are, in my opinion, alcoholics...Butch especially, they were allowed their failures and were allowed to continue on in the Brotherhood, why did he turn on Phury and why did NO ONE try to help him? It was as if Ward totally forgot their devotion to one another and their cause. Why did she not allow Phury's drug use to evolve from red smoke to something more damaging, that would have been more realistic. And his brothers should have tried to save him, there should have been an intervention instead of just one pitiful effort by Z to stop Rehv from selling him red smoke...which lead to Phury getting the bad drugs that caused his overdose. And that was very sad too, the hero of the book nearly dies and he gets a few pages of Z there with him talking about himself, going on about his pain, being an ungrateful jerk...I LOVED Z until this book, now NOT SO MUCH! He was a jackass. His twin found him, saved him, was willing to sacrifice life and limb to rescue him and the nasty creep couldn't muster up a thanks for him? SOOOO not right, and so off the mark. Where was Rhage? Where was V? Butch...who should have felt a bit of Phury's pain having lost a sister and having had his own family not really care much for him after that. Why was no one there for Phury? He was abandoned by those who were most important to him in his life, even Cormia was not actually at his bedside after the OD! I mean ...C'mon!

It was all wrong. There was no intense emotion, no caring, no giving, no worrying...nothing. I hated that the interaction between the brothers was basically zilch! I hated that the shellans were absent except for Doc Jane..and OH I hated that she was called that VERY VERY MUCH. The parts about Rehv were weird and strange and turned me off of him, someone who I had a great deal of interest in as well. That's gone..done for.

And that's not even addressing the fact that the book was billed to be about Cormia and Phury, their romance. The cover has the two of them on it, the back cover tells only of them...yet...they had only a small part in the story, I wouldn't even say Phury was a co star as V was, he was more filler for what was happening with JM and the newbies. I hated that most of all, the main character of the book should have at least 2/3 of the book be about him, if not more! That's how it was in the first 4 books. And I like another reviewer, always skimmed over the JM stuff..he's dull, lifeless, boring and quite frankly I can't read about him...the stuff I skimmed is now the main event in the books. The realtionships between the 6 brothers, their shellans, ther enemies and themselves is all gone. They've been replaced by a cast of thousands, people that I don't care for...and won't ever care for simply because I RESENT the fact that they have taken over the series, a series that was unfinished...she should have done justice to all 6 of the Brothers before bringing the others into the spotlight, leave them in the background, let them develop...but no, she shoved Phury and the boys into the wings and pulled JM and the kiddies onto center stage. It's obvious that she only cares for one brother and that's Z, he's going to be the only one who has any sort of storyline in the future books. To me, the whole Bella baby drama didn't need to be either, we all knew the baby was going to be ok, that Bella was going to be ok, if it were going to be such a majore emphasis of the books after LA..as it has been...she should NOT have told us what happened. And another thing that angers me....Phury and Cormia had a mating ceremony...on J.R Wards forum...WHAT is that all about? Why not put major developments about main characters in the book that is about them? Oh yea, that's right, no room in Phury and Cormias book for them to become mated...noooo we all had to hear about JM until I was ready to vomit. For me, he's now the main lead of the series...personally, that's the final nail in the coffin for me. A boring lackluster nothing..that's how I see him, I can't even tell you what he looks like, that's how little attention I paid to him throughout all of the books.

So, for me, that's it, done with this series. I am moving on, letting go of what I had hoped for and expected and accepting that this is not paranormal romance but now Urban fantasy, something that I don't care for. I won't be reading any further books affiliated with this series. I feel I've been disappointed enough with the last two books, especially this one, to realize that it's over and done with for me. I will be forever grateful to J.R. Ward for introducing me to the vampire world, I will always love those first 4 books, they are perfection to me, they showed me how good books can really be..which makes the sorrow over how bad LE really was sting all the more.

Such a sad day for this BDB and JR Ward fan. I don't know how to fully explain my sadness other than to say...disappointment is a word I thought I'd NEVER use when talking about this series, but unfortunately that's exactly how I feel.

The elements that made this series unique, addictive, and totally edgy are absent from this book. Passionate, all-consuming, destined love matches are one, and the close bond between the BDB is the second.

Here's what I loved (the list is very short)!
1. JR Ward's writing is still excellent.
2. I ALWAYS enjoy catching up with Zhadist and Bella. Ward does a nice job of weaving them into this story.
3. I like John Matthew, and the relationship between him and Xhex and Cormia were both very entertaining.
4. Rehvenge might be the "sexiest" one of all, and we get more glimpses into his world as well.
(Yup, I think that about covers that list!)

Here's what I hated (hang with me!)
1. Bonded vampires obsess about and LOVE their mates. It is an intensity of feeling that defies description. Phury and Cormia had none of it. Even Vishous and Jane, although their story was somewhat disappointing, had enough heat between them to melt some pages. Phury and Cormia were ice cold. I didn't believe either one of them when they professed their love.
2. Phury got the big shaft having to "share" his book. The "new trainees" John, Blay, and Qhuinn got more air time than Phury. Maybe I'm just not ready to say good bye to the "older brothers" yet, but in any case, this was supposed to be Phury's book...we've waited and waited!
3. What the heck happened to the other characters we all love....Rhage, Butch, and Vishous were only briefly mentioned. Mary, Marissa, and Beth couldn't be found with a searchlight. Thank Goodness Bella and Z got a little time and that Jane was needed fro her MD skills, but the rest were absolutely ABSENT.
4. I don't like that the "war" played a primary role in this book. I am a "romance first" kind of reader, and the BDB had some of the greatest romance I've ever read until Lover Enshrined. It felt more sci-fi/urban fantasy.... the storyline that I tend to skim over while I look for the next scene with the main couple in it.
5. Last but not least...too many things were left unresolved for Phury. His love for Bella....his abrupt detox....his relationship with Zhadist...his relationship with Wrath...all these loose ends were sacrificed on the alter of "which secondary character's gonna get the next book?"

Phury deserved better that this.....Readers deserved better than this.....JR Ward can DO better than this. I don't know. Is this the end? If the last two books are any judge....it might be.

Sad and disappointed can't begin to explain how I feel.

I am disppointed that JRW has chosen to attempt to be a mainstream author midway thru this series. I have found that many authors tend to decide they want to write "more important" books than romance after they have built up a solid fan base. It's sad and disappointing and a little insulting, but that's how it goes.

However, I've never seen an author change styles/genres in a series. Especially when that series has fans as passionate as the BDB fans were for the first 3 books. My guess is someone along the way said "You're such a great writer and look at the legions of fans you've garnered. Imagine how many MORE fans you'll pick up if you write for the mainstream crowd. This series is so hot, nobody will complain."

Unfortunately, lots of fans noticed and some have become non-fans. As a reader, it's upsetting to invest so much time and money into an author, only to be dumped for a "better" audience. This is just my opinion of what's going on. I could be wrong.

On another note regarding BDB, (for J Shepherd's review)in response to your first comment:

"...WHO CARES what genre it's in! It's a compelling, multi-faceted story that has such believable characters that I look forward to going on the ride no matter where the final destination is."

Good for you, but most people want to get what they paid for. And if the product is labeled "Romance", it should not be sci-fi, urban, mainstream, etc. It should be "ROMANCE" with maybe a little of the others thrown in for story purposes. If you recommended this book to me and I knew going in that it was not MAINLY a romance, but another genre, then it would be my decision whether to spend my money and my time on a genre I don't usually care for. I may love the book after all or I may not be into the same things you are, but at least I was able to make an informed decision BEFORE purchasing. When books are mislabeled, no matter how good they are, they are taking the choice away from the reader of how to spend their money.

As for your last comment:

"...I will continue to recommend this incredibly well written series to my romance loving friends as well as my friends with a taste for something a little more sophisticated and less predictable then your typical romance novel."

As a Romance reader, I find this comment incredibly offensive. Your comment suggests that Romance readers are not as "sophisticated" or exciting as Mainstream readers. Note how you separate your "Romance loving friends" from your "friends with a taste for something a little more sophisticated and less predictable then your typical romance novel."

One genre is no better than another. It's a matter of preference. And it's MY choice what I choose to BUY, so I expect the "labels" to be accurate.

I feel so ripped off. I pre-ordered this book, eagerly anticipating Phury and Cormia's love story. What I got was definitely NOT what I paid for. What I got was a lot of detailed information on the 'tweenie (or whatever they are) trainee vampires, John Matthew and his buddies, a lot of building-up to Rehv's romance (which I will probably buy secondhand after reading as many reviews as possible about it) and a bunch of information on the lessers. Where were Phury and Cormia? Oh they were there, Ward spent about 10 minutes thinking about them I'm sure... but she was much too busy setting up her next five books to actually put a lot of thought into their story.

Cormia spent a lot of very sweet moments with John Matthew (moments which, I thought, would have been better spent with Phury - but hey we're building up to John Matthew's book as well, so he needed lots of "face time") but her character remained largely undeveloped. There was a lot of potential for Cormia, how she adapted to the BDB world should have been an entertaining, heart-warming, read... but that was not to be.

Phury, one of my favourite characters in past books, spent a lot of time in his room feeling very sorry for himself and smoking up a storm. He had long conversations with a "wizard" in his head... and while we're on that subject: Ms. Ward, liberal (and annoying) use of the word "mate" does NOT a British accent make! Phury did not come across as "tortured" or "damaged" he just seemed whiny and pathetic. How did he and Cormia fall in love? Maybe, while we were all being bombarded with unwanted details on John Matthew, Rehv, Xhex (who tops my list of unlikeable females at the moment), Lessers, 'tweenie family problems and a myriad of other annoying subplots (there were so many, I could barely keep track), Phury and Cormia were spending time together and falling in love, because that's the only thing I can think of to explain how they managed to bond. I mean, they barely spent time together. Absolutely NO time was devoted on Phury's supposed "love" for Bella... which should have been a focal point of the book if you ask me. It should have been about him falling out of love with Bella as he fell in love with Cormia. Instead it was sidelined and dealt with in a sketch (literally).

I have never been more frustrated with a book. Every time we got some Cormia and Phury action(which was about once every four chapters or so), Ward would cut it off and start going on and on and on about a lesser, or Rehv or JM! We barely even got to see the other brothers.

Zsadist and Phury's conversations were nowhere near as gut-wrenching as in Zsadist's story. Who could forget that wonderful hospital scene where the brothers slept curled up, back to back? Ward apparently. Because, Z and Phury were bickering like 10 year olds and there was no satisfactory resolution to that.

Phury was the last BD brother without a shellan... and I do believe Ms Ward was all too aware of that because Phury's story was all about setting up new heroes for future books. He was cheated out of his story... WE were cheated out of his story. This book was such a disappointment and definitely not worthy of the BDB series. Shame on you, Ms Ward, you ripped us all off!

First off, you can read the review by "E.Burns" and get my feelings for this latest in the Black Dagger Brotherhood....I agree with EVERYTHING in that review!
The Enshrined part of the title was supposed to depict Phury's story but man o man, 500 pages and if Phury was in 100 I'd be surprised. We hear hardly anything of the romance between Phury & Cormia and then Phury has gone from being portrayed as a "male of worth" (like he was in the last books) to being a drugged-out, voices hearing, screw up...I suppose we can be glad that Elvis wasn't talking to him too.
I was so looking forward to this book, as a continuation of the fabulous stories before and now, I'm even wondering whether I should get the next in line....it was that bad!
All of a sudden, the mansion is deserted and only small plots with Bella (the supposed love of his life) and Zadist and a cameo of Wrath, Jane & Rhage...nothing of Vishous, Butch, Marissa, Mary etc...it's like they dematerialized into another story....I wish I knew which one, cuz it HAD to be more interesting than this.
The hard part about this for me, is that I don't live in the US and have to get the books delivered through a sky-box, which kills me with charges, so no matter what you guys pay, I'll be paying WAY more (hundreds of dollars in my currency), so yeah I'm livid!

I am heart broken after reading Lover Enshrined. Zadist's story is my favorite, and I was so looking forward to Phury's story. I have never been more disappointed by a book. Phury's story seems to be only one of many side stories. This was not a love story but many story told to advance the overall plot. Phury's story was sacrificed to farther other characters development. This is somewhat ironic: again Phury has to suffer for the betterment of others. I can't believe Ward did not see this irony.

Also, I absolutely hate when authors throw something into a book and give no explanation for it. At the end a new charactor appears that almost all the past character know, but the reader is given no background or explanation as to who he is, his motivation, or how the past character know him. He was basically a random character that wonder on to the pages out of nowhere. I am sure that he will play into later book, but if this book is a reflection of the future of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books I have no interest in finding out.

I knew going into LE that Ward had a tough job. With Phury being the last of the "original" brothers, she had to use this book as a transition to resolve certain issues, present new characters and allow for the BDB story to evolve. In that respect, this book accomplishes the goal. We see broad changes in the BDB world, and the introduction of certain characters that fans on her website have been waiting for. I really think this book lays a good foundation to continue the story. As a transitional book, it is wonderful.

However, this can barely be called Phury's book. As one reviewer put it, he and Cormia are side characters in their own story, and by the end, you just aren't believing in them, cheering for them, or feeling for them. The story is really more about everyone else than it is about them, and I just think they fall flat as characters. This is particularly disappointing, because Ward can write some the most emotional, passionate, downright gutwrenching relationships, and Phury and Cormia just didn't get that. Also, the brothers themselves really take a backseat in this book, as the story is so packed with transitional plotlines, and this can be good or bad depending on how you feel.

So, this book is certainly better than LU, which really frustrated so many fans, but depending on what you were expecting, you may either be really happy, or really disappointed. If you wanted Phury's story, then you won't be thrilled. However, if you've been wondering how in the world this series would continue with the original brothers' books written, then you may be pleased.

Lover Enshrined makes a good case for why spoilers are my friend. I'd have felt cheated too without the heads up from other reviews, because this is not the story I've been waiting for so long. It is also not the book I would have expected from the backcover blurb which describes the romance for Phury - a romance that must have gotten lost in the rewrites that delayed the book's release. But since I had already bought the book, I kept my expectations in check, and I was able to find some interesting parts in the zillion or so story threads that obviously setup for future books in the series that seems to be leaving paranormal romance behind and taking the turn to urban fantasy -- and dumping a lot of fans at that crossroad.

In Phury's `unromance', we get a play-by-play of Phury's selfdestruction. Add to all the cheery inner dialog of his addiction, the discovery of Phury's gleeful sadistic habit of carving up Lessers before killing them and I just had to ask myself who was this guy and what did he do with the heroic selfless Phury who captured my sympathy for the last three or so books. Cormia was only mildly better than I expected. I had hoped that a more interesting Chosen would have turned up to be Phury's mate and there still wasn't much about Cormia to make even an interesting supporting character much less a good leading lady. I won't spend too much time ranting about the relationship between Phury and Cormia, because they spent so little time together that there really wasn't one until the very very end and other reviewers have expressed it much better than I can. But I still have to wonder, where was build-up of tension and longing that normally makes Ward's romances so enjoyable? And the whole Primale story line just fizzles out. Though I couldn't imagine how it would've worked, the thought of this celebate guy being the stud to all the Chosen had been sort of intriguing.

The other thing missing from the book was the other Brothers. With the exception Wrath and the all too brief drop-ins by 'Z', as we watch the anguish cause by his belief that he will soon loose the only two people he's ever loved, Ward skimped on screen time for most of the other Brothers in this book. Taking their place and was the thread that followed John and his friends Blay and Quinn. The traumatic events that unfold for the trio bring great pain, upheaval and ultimately growth as they are clearly becoming "Black Dagger Brotherhood - the Next Generation". This thread was my favorite part of the book because it had glimmers of what I think used to set Ward's books apart from other vampire romances, and that is the strong relationships between the males in this series. I have always enjoyed watching them interact and play off of each other, almost as much I used to enjoy their romances. And I think that if there had a bit more presence of the other Brothers I wouldn't have minded the lack of romance so much.

The portion of the story revolving around the Lessers is always my least favorite part of the Black Dagger books - the impotent baby smelling albinos are wimpy uninteresting bad guys as far as I'm concerned - but for a change this thread held a promising development. So while the setup for the new forelesser was just a cut and paste of the usual, the retro active birth of a new kind of Lesser, and the role he played in shaking up the vampire world may finally give the Brothers a worthy enemy to fight -- so maybe I won't have to keep skipping over their chapters future books.

I've only mentioned the four most significant threads in the story, but there were also a bunch of small ones tossed in to add even more setup for the next books: Xhex, the addition of a new character fallen angel Lassiter, the recovery of the `Lost One', Payne's awakening and the tease for Rhev's book. But the major result of all switches necessary to work in all this little stuff was that the book was pretty choppy. And with all the different minor threads that were squeezed in, no wonder there wasn't room for Phury's romance or the other Brothers. Ward tried to do too much in one book -- one more rewrite might have helped.